Who's to blame for Charlottesville?

Vice News Tonight on HBO well documented the hatred that incited the violence between the neoNazis and antiNazis in Charlottesville. It's worth watching--if you can stand some of the shocking and scary things said by one of the neoNazi leaders.

I want to be careful here, because I can't read what's in the hearts and minds of all the marchers and counter marchers. But there is this:

The interviewed neoNazi leader is a dangerous man, fully armed not just with ugly and provocative rhetoric, but also with an array of guns and a knife. He's someone who says that "people die all the time" when asked about Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed. His demeanor was so unattached to human emotion that some experts might call him a sociopath. Nearly everything that vomited out of his mouth violated everything that Americans should hold dear.

What many of the marchers were chanting and the words of their leader invoke a horrible vision of 1930s Nazi Germany and ethnic cleansing. Anyone marching with them who didn't realize the depth of this group's hatred ought to disavow themselves from the "movement."

Evidence of incitement was visible on both sides. One can even reasonably suggest that elements of both sides intended to provoke the other side to show everyone how "dangerous" their opponents were. Both sides engaged in taunting and the kind of verbal abuse that could lead to violence.

The neoNazis had a right to protest. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to march in similar instance when neoNazis planned to march in Skokie, Ill., the home of many Holocaust survivors. Counter protestors who blocked their way were wrong. It only gave the neoNazis the opportunity to claim victimhood.

It's time for the politically moderate to assert themselves, to not let America be defined by the wild, wild left or the hateful right.

The person that I ended up admiring the most after viewing the Vice documentary was the reporter, who managed to keep her cool in the face of the sickness and hatred that surrounded her. Here's the documentary:

Comments

However, with regard to the ACLU, the Tribune just had a piece that unlike with the Charlottesville Nazis, it will no longer defend those who bring arms to their supposed free speech events. Maybe every university will now need metal detectors outside their assembly areas.

And, of course, the whole point of the Nazis and other alt-Right elements is to claim victimhood. This became obvious when "Tech Editor" Milo was exposed as that "I can flame you and you can't prevent my 1st Amendment right to do so, even if it violates the Twitter TOS." Apparently even the old line conservatives weren't willing to go that far when he started to get into pedophilia. Seems like content based censorship to me.

That may be a distinction between the 1970s Nazis who backed down from marching in Skokie, and the current group (and is also reflected in my first comment). Cantwell also said "I'm trying to make myself more capable of violence."

BTW, there are reports that Cantwell is subject to arrest warrants for the illegal use of gases and injury by caustic agent or explosive,. Nice, law abiding Nazi, there, if you believe his self-defense claim, which we don't.

Let's get to another point in a Vice News interview, where Cantwell said such things as 'Somebody like Donald Trump, who does not give his daughter to a Jew. I don't think you could feel the way I do about race, and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl.'

Now here is a distinction that Jill Marie missed. BLM may have some anti-Zionists or anit-Semites, but its purpose is to protest police killings of Blacks. The purpose of the American Nazi Party is clear that it is racism and anti-Semitism; Cantwell and associates were expressing that, not only with such statements, but also "Jews will not replace us" banners, taunts about the Jewish mayor, and the like, even though Trump and his followers argue that this is about the monument---but there were few Jews in this country in 1865. The American Nazi Party was not organized to celebrate the Cinematographic Beauty of Leni Riefenstahl, either.

Yet the silence of the blogger is telling. Maybe he should visit some of his neighbors in Northbrook and learn about this. Otherwise, despite his protestations about strawmen, we can only take that by posting approval of those who blame anti-Semitism on liberals, and pretty much buying the equivalence theory, what his real views are. Otherwise, he's had a day to respond, but the only response so far is that he does not owe Holocaust victims an apology.